Relationship of Trauma Symptoms to Amygdala‐Based Functional Brain Changes in Adolescents

Abstract

In this pilot study, amygdala connectivity related to trauma symptoms was explored using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) in 23 healthy adolescents ages 13–17 years with no psychiatric diagnoses. Adolescents completed a self-report trauma symptom checklist and a R-fMRI scan. We examined the relationship of trauma symptoms to resting-state functional connectivity of the amygdala. Increasing self-report of trauma symptoms by adolescents was associated with increasing functional connectivity with the right amygdala and a local limbic cluster and decreasing functional connectivity with the amygdala and a long-range frontoparietal cluster to the left amygdala, which can be a hallmark of immaturity. These pilot findings in adolescents provide preliminary evidence that even mild trauma symptoms can be linked to the configuration of brain networks associated with the amygdala.

Too much, too young? Altered corticolimbic axonal innervation and resting state functional connectivity suggests sex-dependent outcomes in a rat model of early life adversity

“…Interestingly, increased [more mature] rsFC BLA-IL connectivity in female ELS at PD28 correlated with decreased anxiety-like behavior at that age as well as 20 days later. This suggests that more mature connectivity in female juveniles may confer enduring behavioral resilience, which is consistent with previous reports that dampened connectivity is associated with increased anxiety in adolescence (Kim et al, 2011;Nooner et al, 2013). While ELS exposure in males appeared to result in lower juvenile (PD28) rsFC between the BLA and the PL, no effects on the magnitude of change between PD28-PD48 were noted, therefore altered maturation per se was not observed.…”

Longitudinal Associations Between Family Aggression, Externalizing Behavior, and the Structure and Function of the Amygdala

“…Resting state functional connectivity analyses illuminate which regions of the brain show correlated patterns of activation at rest, indicating that they may be primed for faster co‐activation and more coordinated activity. Several researchers have observed altered frontolimbic connectivity in the wake of early life stress or trauma (Gee et al., ; Nooner et al., ). For example, stronger frontolimbic connectivity with the amygdala during an emotion matching test was observed in adults who had been maltreated as children (Jedd et al., ), and greater resting state connectivity between the amygdala and frontolimbic regions, including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and inferior temporal gyrus, was observed in drug‐dependent adults who had experienced childhood maltreatment (Dean, Kohno, Hellemann, & London, ).…”

Stress and the adolescent brain

“…One means of measuring functional connectivity is to employ resting state measures, which assay spontaneous regional interactions that occur when a subject is not performing an explicit task and provides an index of the integrity of a functional connection between regions of interest. Adolescents with a history of child maltreatment (Herringa et al, 2013) or trauma (Pagliaccio et al, 2015; Thomason et al, 2015) exhibit weaker connectivity between amygdala and PFC regions (Nooner et al, 2013), including regions in the medial PFC (mPFC). The nature of amygdala-mPFC resting state connectivity has implications for future mental health; in adulthood, weaker connectivity is associated with increased trait anxiety (Kim, Gee, Loucks, Davis, & Whalen, 2011).…”